EXETER — It didn’t take long to see that the Portsmouth High School hockey team was out of its league in its league opener Wednesday night.

The short-handed Clippers opened Division III play with an 8-2 loss to John Stark/Hopkinton at The Rinks. The score was 4-0 after one period and, though the mistakes were minimized and overall play improved after that, there was no question it was an uphill struggle.

“My big concern off the bat was if we didn’t get out with a couple goals early we were going to lose some steam,” said Portsmouth coach Al Brandano, “and that’s what happened.”

Junior Aaron Rancourt and freshman Luke Lacroce scored goals for the Clippers, who were outshot by a 46-16 margin on a night they were missing four players. Goalie Brady Marchewka made 38 saves.

Both squads were .500 clubs a year ago, with the Clippers reaching the playoffs and Stark gong a step further, to the quarterfinals. But with just one senior — captain and defenseman Brodie Sandquist — Brandano knows this is a work in progress. He sent out a first line with two freshmen — Lacroce and Jack Alden.

“We have a veteran team back,” said first-year coach Denis Kolehmainen, a winner in his debut. “We only lost three seniors and we have seven seniors this year. We have a pretty well-balanced team, top to bottom.”

Marchewka had a few shining moments early. He stopped one breakaway and a pair of 2-on-1s in the opening six minutes, and his team trailed just 1-0 at that point.

But Ferguson netted his second seven minutes in, after the Clippers had trouble getting the puck out of the zone. Blanchette made it 3-0 two minutes later when an errant clearing pass found his stick in front, and Ferguson completed his hat trick with a close-in backhand at 12:38.

Shots in the period favored Stark by a 21-2 count.

“We were considering going to a trap,” said Brandano, “but we believe we need to push them. We need them to find out who they are.”

The second period was his team’s best. Rancourt got his team on the board at 5:06, taking a long clearing pass from Alden, beating a defender at the blue line and then going top-shelf with a wrister from the high slot.

“We didn’t come out with the same intensity,” said Kolehmainen. “They popped that first goal in on us and it put us on our heels.”

The Clippers generated a few other chances, mostly on the lone power play they were awarded midway through. They nearly escaped the frame at 4-1 but another defensive misplay set up Callahan Loos to make it 5-1 with a little over two minutes to play.

In the third period, back-to-back penalties on Marchewka and Rancourt handed the Generals a 5-on-3, and they wasted no time cashing in on that or the 5-on-4 that followed.

The Clippers’ next game is Saturday at Laconia-Winnisquam, and they’ll try to take the lessons learned Wednesday and turn them into something positive.

“We knew going into this we had a lot to see,” said Brandano. “We’ll make the adjustments based on what we learned tonight.”